on y
wher e it will do
th e most
/NW
The Little Menorah That Could
Chanukah CD benefits children's charity.
We Have the High
ever written in my life took much
longer."
In The Odd Potato, a recent
widower refuses to go up to the
very year around this
attic to bring down the menorah
time, cast members of
so his family can celebrate
Broadway musicals con -
Chanukah. When his daughter,
tribute carols to a Christmas
Rachel,. finds an oddly shaped
album whose proceeds go to
potato, she remembers a story her
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights
late mother used to tell her — how
AIDS.
Rachel's grandparents were so
This year, they'll
. poor they
face a little friendly
THE 13FMAIDWAY
had.to
holiday season
ALBUM
use a
competition: a CD
potato
of The Odd Potato,
instead
featuring 20 Tony
of a
Award winners
meno-
singing and nar-
rah. She
rating what is
does the
called "the
same and
Chanukah story
that
gets
for everyone."
t.
her
father
Proceeds go to
. • -_-
STARR/Nei
20 TDNY AWARD'
out of his
Variety — The
vviNNERs
Q.
funk.
Chiidren's
After it
Charity.
aired, the
The tale of The Odd
story took
Potato actually goes back about
on a life of its own. It was pub-
70 years, to a cold winter in
lished as an illustrated book and •
Atlantic City. It was Chanukah, and
subsequently became a play. It has
writer Eileen Bluestone Sherman's
involved her entire family. Eileen's
grandmother had no money. Her
sister, Gail, wrote the music for
husband died, leaving her with
The Odd Potato, and her son,
three boys to raise. "It was the
Joshua, illustrated a coloring book
Depression, she was an.immigrant
and all she had was a little hole-in- version of the story.
Jim Dale, Sutton Foster, Hal
the-wall produce store," Sherman
Linden, Hal Prince, Elaine. Stritch
said in a telephone interview from
and Donna McKechnie are among
her home in Kansas City, Mo.
the Tony winners who've lent their
She didn't even have a menorah,
voices to this project.
so she took this oddly shaped
Eileen remembers how hard it
potato and stuck candles in it.
was for her kids around the
Eileen's father told that story
Christmas holidays. "This is some-
every Chanukah, and apparently it
thing special just for them," she
made an impression.
It's years later. Eileen has a fam-
says.
ily of her own. She's written a
couple of children's plays that
were produced at a local theater.
The Odd Potato CD, benefiting
And she's been approached to
Variety-The Children's Charity, is
write a Chanukah story to be read
$14.95 and available at
on a local cable TV channel.
www.oddpotato.com , as well as
That night I sat down, and I
at Tower Records and select
guess my father's story was in my
Borders bookstores.
head. I wrote The Odd Potato in
20 minutes. Everything else I've
Certificate of Deposit
Curt Schleier
Special to the Jewish News
Rates You're Looking For
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ail
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